Last year saw one of the biggest beefs in recent music history as rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake went against each other in a tirade of videos, accusations and attempted lawsuits.
But 2025 might have a version of this for a different group of music listeners.
In 2024, the music industry saw the rise of British hyperpop artist Charli XCX into global stardom with her album “brat.” In the same year, Taylor Swift, the second biggest pop star in the world, released her album “The Tortured Poets Department.” This album saw many variations, but the one that raised the most eyebrows was her UK exclusive release right around the time when “brat” was climbing the charts there.
Many felt this was an intentional move by Swift to prevent Charli XCX’s album from reaching number one.
This could have been because Swift felt unfairly attacked by Charli XCX’s song “Sympathy is a Knife,” where Charli XCX sang lyrics hinting at Swift.
“Don't wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend's show,” Charli XCX sang. “Fingers crossed behind my back / I hope they break up quick.”
People quickly connected that Charli XCX was talking about Swift. In 2023, Swift was allegedly romantically involved with Matty Healy of the band The 1975. Charli XCX was dating and is now married to George Daniel, who is the drummer of The 1975.
Although this song is more about Charli XCX feeling she will never be the level of star that Swift is, it seems Swift perceived it as a dig.
On her most recent album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” Swift seemed to respond to the comments by Charli XCX.
Swift starts her song “Actually Romantic” with the line “I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke's got you brave / High-fived my ex, and then you said you're glad he ghosted me.”
The song title also appears to be in reference to Charli XCX’s song “Everything is romantic.” Swift shared having all the hate she does is “actually pretty romantic if you really think about it.”
Some thought Swift and Charli XCX would reconcile on a remix of “Sympathy is a Knife.” This would be similar to what Charli XCX did with Lorde on her remix of “Girl, so confusing.” However, the reconciliation between the artists did not happen.
Many users online have compared this to last year’s Kendrick and Drake dispute. One user on X posted, “Taylor Swift vs Charli XCX is Kendrick vs Drake for white women.”
Although many are saying this in a joking manner, there are some interesting parallels between the two situations, even though they are in two different musical genres.
The first thing is the albums Charli XCX and Lamar released before they were launched into the beef. They both were coming down from very emotionally vulnerable albums and shared some of the struggles the artists went through during the time between releases.
Both Swift and Drake are some of the biggest artists of the 21st century, occupying the top two spots of Billboard’s top 100 artists of the 21st century list.
Unfortunately, one of the interesting parallels here is Swift and Drake’s misreading of an important song by their rivals. In Swift’s case, it is “Sympathy is a knife,” and in Drake’s it is “Mother I Sober.”
Drake’s referred to “Mother I Sober” in his song “THE HEART PART 6” where he mocks Lamar’s mention so generational trauma and sexual abuse, “My mom came over today and I was like, 'Mother, I—, mother, I—, mother— Ahh, wait a second, that's that one record where you say you got molested.”
Athough Charli XCX has not released any sort of response to Swift, this is an interesting part of the 2025 music history. Charli XCX has become a media darling, and Swift has lost some favor with the underwhelming nature of her latest album.
It is refreshing to see some of the biggest names in music going after each other as listeners. It gives people more music, more storylines and can help listeners understand the artists on a deeper level.
No one can say what is next to come with this current feud between Charli XCX and Swift, but it is sure to be an interesting next few weeks and months for the two.
